- Title: MIDEAST: Israeli team harnesses sun to purify water
- Date: 3rd June 2013
- Summary: KFAR ADUMIM, WEST BANK (RECENT) (REUTERS) PHOTOVOLTAIC DISH MOVING/DISTILLATION DEVICE SOLAR PANELS MAN LOOKING AT WATER CANISTERS MAN POURING WATER INTO GLASS AND DRINKING IT PART OF DISH CO-FOUNDER OF SUNDWATER, DR. RONALD SILVER, TALKING TO REPORTER (SOUNDBITE) (English) CO-FOUNDER OF SUNDWATER, DR. RONALD SILVER, SAYING: "We feel we have a, really a world-changing, revolutionary invention. Our pre-production unit is unique insofar that we have a solution to the problem of pure drinking water, in so far as our solution is completely green, requires no infrastructure, is run on solar power and has the ability, through our proprietary design changes, to create distilled, pure water in yields that heretofore have never been achieved, to make it an economically feasible model." VARIOUS OF MAN HOLDING GLASS WITH POLLUTED WATER DISTILLER / MAN CONNECTING WATER HOSE MAN POURING CLEAN WATER OUT OF A CONTAINER INTO GLASS (SOUNDBITE) (English) CO-FOUNDER OF SUNDWATER, DR. RONALD SILVER, SAYING: "Scientifically we, in the distillation process, we take the water from its liquid form and make it into its gaseous state. Every, all the contaminants are then left behind. And therefore we feel we've, our unit, that distinguishes our unit also, is that our water is potentially much purer than anything else that the world has seen so far in terms of other technologies." MAN STANDING NEAR DISH AS IT MOVES SUNDWATER CEO, SHIMMY ZIMELS, TALKING TO TEAM AND POINTING UPWARDS SUN SHINING (SOUNDBITE) (English) SUNDWATER CEO, SHIMMY ZIMELS, SUNDWATER CEO, SAYING: "When we built the product we took in mind that this is going to be in the field, used by people that are not trained or not engineers and they don't have the ability to run these systems. So, it's a very high tech unit but it's low tech to operate and the operation is very simple, there's minimal maintenance that needs to be done so basically there's really no cost to run the system on the long run." DISH CLEAN WATER BEING POURED INTO CONTAINER FROM HOSE HERZLIYA, ISRAEL (RECENT) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) WATER TECHNOLOGY EXPERT AT THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM, PROFESSOR AVNER ADIN, SAYING: "It can be important first of all for remote locations, for small villages in developing countries, for agriculture in remote places. In the future, maybe the technology will improve and be used for larger projects." KFAR ADUMIM, WEST BANK (RECENT) (REUTERS) JUDEAN DESERT SUN SHINING
- Embargoed: 18th June 2013 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Israel, West bank
- City:
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Topics: Science
- Reuters ID: LVA473I8PME4JZ8JSQ7QT72UEL7S
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- Story Text: Water scarcity and water pollution are two of the world's most pressing problems, especially in developing countries where infrastructure and resources are limited.
A new Israeli technology that relies on sun power to distil clean water for drinking and agriculture may pave the way for a long-term solution for these issues.
The Jerusalem-based SunDwater company has developed a water distiller that, according to its founders, is "revolutionary".
"We feel we have a, really a world-changing, revolutionary invention. Our pre-production unit is unique insofar that we have a solution to the problem of pure drinking water, in so far as our solution is completely green, requires no infrastructure, is run on solar power and has the ability, through our proprietary design changes, to create distilled, pure water in yields that heretofore have never been achieved, to make it an economically feasible model," said SunDwater co-founder Dr. Ronald Silver.
The distiller converts dirty or salty water into clean drinking water without any external energy source, other than sunlight.
The polluted water is pumped into the distiller, which carries a four-square-meter (43-square-foot) round photovoltaic dish that concentrates the sunbeams for fast evaporation. The vapour flows into a container where it is condensed back into clean water.
"We take the water from its liquid form and make it into its gaseous state... all the contaminants are then left behind. And therefore...our water is potentially much purer than anything else that the world has seen so far in terms of other technologies," Silver said.
The company's CEO Shimmy Zimels says that while the dish and distiller are hi-tech, they are easy to operate.
"When we built the product we took in mind that this is going to be in the field, used by people that are not trained or not engineers and they don't have the ability to run these systems. So, it's a very high tech unit but it's low tech to operate and the operation is very simple, there's minimal maintenance that needs to be done so basically there's really no cost to run the system on the long run," Zimels said, standing near a pre-market operational unit of the device set up in the desert not far from the Dead Sea.
SunDwater's unit produces 400 litres of clean water per day. A much larger and more advanced version is also planned.
Zimels said that there has been interest in the product from Latin America, India, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, Nigeria and other African countries.
Water technology expert Avner Adin says such units have great potential in developing countries.
"It can be important first of all for remote locations, for small villages in developing countries, for agriculture in remote places. In the future, maybe the technology will improve and be used for larger projects," he said.
SunDwater says that the price of the distiller, which is due on the market by year's end, ranges between $10,000 and $25,000. Users will be required to pay the company royalties on the water they produce.
According to the United Nations, water scarcity affects every continent. Around 1.2 billion people, or almost one-fifth of the world's population, live in areas of physical scarcity, and a further 500 million people are at risk of it. Another 1.6 billion people, or almost one quarter of the world's population, face economic water shortages because they lack the necessary infrastructure to take water from rivers and aquifers. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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